The invention can be used in particular in applications for the real time processing of radar signals, for example in correlators, spectrum analyzers or interferometers, in optical channel telecommunications applications and in optical fiber sensor applications.
Generally speaking, the invention can be applied to any system requiring to connect M luminous points to N output points with M and N being whole numbers .gtoreq.1. In particular, the switch may be used to bring the light supplied by luminous sources, such as laser diodes, to photodiode type bars of detectors. Similarly, the switch is able to ensure the transfer of a luminous signal carried by any optical fiber of a set of optical fibers, generally monomode fibers, to any fiber of another set of optical fibers.
Currently known switches with integrated optics use successive switchings suitably associated and constituted by microguides. The transfer of the light from one microguide to another microguide is ensured via the interaction of the luminous signal to be switched with an electric field generated by electrodes placed opposite the microguides.
These switches are described in the article in Electronics Letters, July 1986, vo. 22, No 15 by P. Granestrand and al and entitled "Strictly non blocking 8.times.8 integrated optical switch matrix", p. 816-818 and in the article by G. A. Bogert and al and entitled "Low crosstalk 4.times.4 TiLiNbO.sub.3 optical switch with permanently attached polarization maintaining fiber array" in the Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. LT-4, No 10, October 1986, p. 1542-1545.
These devices have the advantage of using relatively weak control electric powers. On the other hand, they may only be embodied on materials having electro-optical properties, such as LiNbO.sub.3. In particular, glass or silica type amorphous materials or even silicon cannot be used. Furthermore, owing to the "waterfall" disposition of the various microguides, all the combinations to transmit a luminous signal from one microguide to another are not equivalent. Finally, the control of these switchings is often complex and this complexity increases with the number of inputs and outputs.